The Diary Blog

Congrats to Andrew Haigh (SoT class of 2008) whose second feature Weekend just won the audience award at SXSW last week.

The film, an unconventional gay love story, has sold for US distribution to IFC’s Sundance Selects.

Tristan Goligher produced for The Bureau. In SXSW, Haigh said he had a few other projects he’s working on, including a loose re-imagining of a French New Wave classic and a story about a marriage torn apart by a long-lost love.

A UK deal could be close for Weekend, and you can watch the trailer here.

Ashton is also starring in Karl Golden’s raver drama Weekender (due out this summer), true-life drama Dreams of A Life, about the mysterious life and death of Joyce Vincent (set for an autumn launch), and she stars opposite Jason Isaacs in new BBC1 series Case Histories (being produced by Ruby Films, adapted from Kate Atkinson’s series of bestselling mystery novels). If that’s not enough, she’s also a playwright and now under commission to the Bush Theatre and Clean Break theatre company.

And remember Stars of Tomorrow 2005? Well that kid Robert Pattinson also seems to be doing well for himself…

When Brit producer Christopher Granier Deferre told us that he was turning his hand to directing, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit the set of his first short, Beast, even if it was on a sunny Saturday. That’s our dedication to the film industry (and a free lunch) folks!

And it was well worth the trip to Putney, if only to witness two acting dynasties literally wrestling each other to the floor, in the form of Jack Fox (son of James/ nephew of Edward/brother in law to half of the UK entertainment industry) and Edmund Kingsley (son of acting legend Ben) as they play flatmates whose relationship takes a sinister turn when one of them reveals he has killed a girl…

Add to the equation the fact that Granier Deferre’s dad is the late award-winning French director Pierre Granier Deferre, and you’ve got enough material for a psychology PHD.

“We are basically three people standing in our fathers’ shadows,” the BIFA-nominated producer turned director jokes.

Granier Deferre is using this short as a test drive for his first feature, The Last Witness, which he is planning to shoot at the end of this year in Newcastle. Although if Saturday’s shoot was anything to go by, he’s a natural.

Chatting to Jack and Ed whilst tucking into lasagne in the garden, it becomes clear that a) they are not at all fazed by their famous parentage and b) I’ve clearly missed all the juicy bits, like a shower scene and one involving porn. “It’s all a bit homoerotic really,” laughs Jack. “So, a bit like public school.”

The film’s producer John Schwab also told me that shooting in Putney had been a bit of a nightmare due to being below the Heathrow flight path. Now where’s that no fly zone when you need it..

Great, huh? It was so striking that I did some research — and it turns out the track is the new song “Civilization” by Justice, and the director is Romain Gavras.

The young French filmmaker, the son of stalwart Costa-Gavras, previously directed the controversial video for M.I.A.’s “Born Free,” and made his feature directorial debut with Our Day Will Come (Notre Jour Viendra), which turned heads at its premiere in Toronto and also just played at SXSW. It stars Vincent Cassel and Olivier Barthelemy in the story of two misfits testing each other’s manhood.

Romain is also the brother of Julie Gavras, whose Late Bloomers just premiered in Berlin.

London mayor Boris Johnson made a scene-stealing last-minute appearance at the launch of the newest studio on the block, the Wimbledon Film and Television Studios, at the swanky Soho Hotel last night. (Our news story is here.)

Arriving in the nick of time on his trusty bike, Boris told an audience of industry types trying to juggle their champagne and 3D glasses, that this was his third speech of the night, but that he had “overruled and thwacked down” some members of his staff who had had the nerve to say he didn’t need to be at the event.

The film-loving mayor joked that he had recently spotted his office, City Hall, in the background of a gigantic poster for the latest Harry Potter film (“Harry Potter And The Awful Experience or whatever it was”) on the side of a London bus as it “glided past at the average speed of 9.4 miles per hour.”

He also went on to take personal credit for “rescuing Film London from the grad grinds of the Treasury in a manoeuvre worthy of James Bond.”

A cunning linguist he may be, we’re just not sure how he’d look in a pair of Daniel Craig’s Speedos.

Our writers and editors will be busy updating you on the cool stuff that doesn’t make it into our serious news headlines — party chatter, festival fun, films we’re loving, and whatever else strikes our fancy. Let’s face it, we’re not reporting on plastics manufacturing — the film business is fun and even sometimes glamorous, so watch this space for some mildly diverting tales.

Stay tuned later today for Sarah Cooper’s take on our visit last night to the swank launch of Wimbledon Film & TV Studios at the Soho Hotel in London (note to event organisers: champagne is always a lure for Team Screen). Boris Johnson had the crowd in stitches…

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